January 29, 2011

American Kestrel

The other morning, my wife and I took a drive out to Farmington Bay. We were a little slow getting there and although we counted more than 60 Bald Eagles, they had finished fishing for the morning and had moved way out on to the ice and trees. Even though there weren't a lot of photo ops, we did enjoy watching the eagles, a few harriers, herons, kestrels, and about a bazillion sea gulls (yes, I actually counted them). The highlight of the morning was the front-row seat we had for and American Kestrel enjoying his mouse for breakfast. It was pretty amazing to watch this guy devour the mouse. He kept a pretty close eye on us, but made pretty quick work of his meal.

Heads up - some of these images are a bit on the graphic side.

All but last two images were taken with the Canon 7D and the Canon 400mm f/2.8L IS lens coupled with the Canon 1.4x III Extender.

The last two images were taken with the Canon 40D and the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens.